The First US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges,

New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

Closure of Old MSW Waste Dumps – Stability and Sustainability

Manoj Datta
Director, PEC University of Technology and Professor, IIT Delhi
director@pec.ac.in, mdatta@civil.iitd.ac.in

1.0 Interest and Expertise

Old municipals solid waste (MSW) waste dumps in India often have heights of 15m or more
and side slopes at inclinations of the order of 1.0 : 1.0. (see Figs. 1 and 2)

Fig. 1: Old Waste Dump at Gorai Fig. 2: Old Waste Dump at Okhla

Such waste dumps are closed by providing multi-layer impervious covers which often
include geomebranes because these help in landfill gas collection and prevention of
infiltration. Such covers are stable at slopes of 3.0 : 1.0 or flatter. This entails flattening of
existing slopes by relocation of waste - a complex and expensive procedure (see Figs. 3 and
4).

Fig. 3: Relocation of Waste at Gorai Fig. 4: Multi-Layer Cover at Gorai

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The First US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges,
New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

Solutions are required for providing covers at steep slopes such that quantity of waste to be
re-located is minimized or is not required.

Landfill gas recovery and flaring / usage are now being adopted to minimize greenhouse gas
emissions from such old waste dumps. Costs of providing landfill covers are being offset
from sale of CERs.

The focus continues to be on capping of old waste dumps. Sustainability of closure is rarely
addressed. The concept of bioreactor landfills is being suggested as a sustainable way of
accelerating waste stabilization and gas recovery. The application of this concept to closure
of old waste dumps requires further investigation.

There is a need to find a solution to both problems relating to old waste dumps ie (a) closure
without re-location of waste and (b) sustainability of closure.

At IIT Delhi and at PEC, expertise is available to conduct slope stability studies at interfaces
of various cover layers to arrive at optimal solutions for inclination of cover slopes. Studies
relating to bioreactor landfills are also underway at IIT Delhi.

2.0 Current State-of-the-Art

Figs. 5 and 6 show the components of cover systems adopted for MSW and hazardous waste
(HW) landfills in India (MUA, 2000; CPCB, 2000).

C.C.L-compacted clay layer, D.L-drainage layer, G.C- gas collection layer , S.S.-sub soil,
G.M – geomembrane, V.G- vegetation,T.S.-top soil L.C-leachate collection layer

Fig. 5: Components of MSW landfill. Fig.6: Components of HW landfill.

In cases where gas recovery is a major objective in MSW landfills, a geomembrane layer is
introduced above the clay in the cover system, making it similar to a cover system of a HW
landfill.

The stability of such cover systems on steep slopes is affected by numerous factors including
(Koerner and Daniel, 1997; Qian et.al. 2002):
(a) Slope inclination

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The First US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges,
New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

(b) Interface shearing resistance between various layers, particularly geomebranes and
other geosynthetics / soils.
(c) Height between berms
(d) Strength of geomembranes
(e) Strength of reinforcing geogrids
(f) Thickness of top soil
(g) Thickness and type of drainage layer
(h) Seismic forces
(i) Seepage forces
(j) Erosion considerations

A typical set of results of how a factor of safety in slope stability analysis varies with
different combinations is given in Table 1.

Table1: Results of Slope stability Analysis (Datta, 2009)

Case Slope Inclination Parameters FOS
A 3.0 : 1.0 Cover components as in Fig. 6; 1.5mm 0.92
HDPE textured geomembrane; height
between berms 7.5m; no seepage
B 3.0 : 1.0 Case A with veneer reinforcement geogrid 1.41
(T = 30 kN/m)
C 3.0 : 1.0 Case B with seepage 1.15
D 3.0 : 1.0 Case C with sand drainage layer replaced by 1.40
geocomposite layer

Even with various combinations of design factors listed above, one is rarely able to achieve
slopes steeper than 3.0 : 1.0 with an acceptable factor of safety of 1.5, unless the top soil layer
is made extremely thin or done away with completely. The latter approach is not well
documented. It deserves a detailed assessment.

Solutions are required, at a number of locations in India, for sustainable closure of old MSW
waste dumps with new techniques which do not require re-location of large quantities of
waste and in which the stability of the dump is not compromised.

3.0 Expertise and Organizational Facilities

Interface shear behaviour and slope stability analysis are the two components which require
further studies. Interface direct shear devices and slope stability softwares are available at
most Indian and US research Institutes.

Further some research groups are working in India and in the US on bioreactor landfill
techniques; the feasibility of extending these techniques to old waste dumps for accelerating
the rate of waste stabilization and recovery of landfill gas can be investigated.

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The First US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges,
New Delhi, India, November 7, 2010

4.0 Global Geoenvironmental Challenges

The following challenges need to be addressed:

(a) Can we arrive at slope steeper than 3.0 : 1.0 with existing materials for capping of old
dumps?
(b) What are the properties that are needed in new materials to arrive at steeper slopes?
(c) Can the concepts of bioreactor landfills be applied to old waste dumps?
(d) Do we need a totally new approach to sustainable closure of old waste dumps?

5.0 Potential US – India Collaborative Partnership

A joint US - India project can be undertaken between two research groups, one in the US and
the other in India to address the questions listed in section 4.0. The approach would be:
(a) Step 1: Assess feasibility of solution with existing materials using analytical
techniques;
(b) Step 2: Joint workshop to consider the results and arrive at future directions
(c) Step 3: Additional analytical and laboratory studies
(d) Step 4: Joint workshop to finalize design procedures
(e) Step 5: Further studies and Final Joint Report / Design Manual

6.0 References

CPCB, (2000). “Criteria for hazardous waste landfills.” Central Pollution Control Board, New
Delhi.
Datta, M. (2009), Slope Stability of Cover Systems of Hazardous Waste Landfills, 17th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Alexandria,
Greece., Vol. 2. pp. 1642 - 1645
Koerner, R.M. and Daniel, D.E. (1997). “Final covers for solid waste landfills and abandoned
dumps.” ASCE Press, Virginia, USA.
MUA. (2000). “Manual for municipal solid waste management.” CPHEEO, Ministry of
Urban Affairs, New Delhi.
Qian, X., Koerner, R.M. and Gray, D.H. (2002). “Geotechnical aspects of landfill design and
construction.” Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA.

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